Lee Jae-myung's First Press Conference After Presidential Election: "The Top Priority Is Restoring Fairness"

Basic Income Still Faces Many Concerns
Cannot Call It the First Pledge

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Koo Chae-eun, Jeon Jin-young] Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, said on the 2nd during an online press conference that his flagship policy, ‘Basic Income,’ "cannot be called the No. 1 pledge (for the presidential election) yet, because there are still many concerns." This indicates that Lee, who declared his presidential candidacy the day before, may take a somewhat flexible approach to the Basic Income initiative, which has faced criticism both internally and externally.

At the conference, he stated, "Resources and opportunities must be efficiently allocated through the restoration of fairness to achieve effectiveness. That is much more important, so Basic Income has been placed a bit further back in priority." He added, "Since it is a groundbreaking and new policy, there are concerns about implementing it fully and at once, and the issue of funding allocation is also a reality. After proving policy efficiency through partial implementation at a perceptible level and gaining public consent, it should be gradually expanded." Lee said, "The reason Basic Income has drawn attention is because it is such a new policy. There is a lot of criticism, so there is much interest, but I cannot say that this is my most important No. 1 pledge."

The press conference was held for 30 minutes via the video platform ‘Zoom’ considering the resurgence of COVID-19. After declaring his presidential candidacy the day before, Lee moved to his hometown, Andong in Gyeongbuk Province, and on this day held the video conference from Mokpo, Jeonnam Province. Following the conference, he visited the Kim Dae-jung Nobel Peace Prize Memorial Hall located in Mokpo. Afterwards, he also held a ‘Joint Agreement Signing Ceremony for Win-Win Development between Gyeonggi Province and Jeollanam Province’ at the Jeonnam Provincial Office. This is interpreted as an effort to court public opinion in Honam, a stronghold of the ruling party, following his campaign to win over Daegu and Gyeongbuk (TK) voters the previous day. On the weekend of the 3rd and 4th, he is scheduled to participate in a KBS TV debate and the Democratic Party’s public interview, respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.